Feed-in Tariff Review 2015 Consultation Response

17th December 2015

The government has published its Response to the recent Consultation on a full-scale review of the Feed-in Tariff Scheme (FiTs) (see here), with mixed results for the sector.

The good news is that, for now, the underlying threat in the Consultation of the complete removal of the generation tariff does not appear to have been followed through and some tariff reductions are not to go as far as had been indicated (see our previous blog, Feed-in Tariffs Review for information regarding the Consultation’s proposals).

As examples, the proposed 87% cut in solar PV tariffs for <4kW installations will be scaled back to a 65% cut, the proposed 67% cut for 50-100kW wind installations will reduce to a 38% cut and >2,000kW hydro installations will now see a tariff increase of 82%.

However, some tariffs have actually fared worse, such as <2,000kW hydro installations which will now face cuts of between 31% and 45% as opposed to the proposed cuts of between 26% and 31%.

In more good news, the government is to reverse its decision earlier this year to remove the preliminary accreditation process from FiTs (see our blog Changes to Feed-in Tariff Accreditation for information regarding that decision). Preliminary accreditation will therefore be reintroduced from 8th February 2016 for >50kW solar PV and wind installations and for all anaerobic digestion and hydro installations.

Other points confirmed in the Response include that tariff degression will now also be linked to new quarterly deployment caps based on an overall budget cap of £100 million per year; Retail Price Index (RPI) (rather than Consumer Price Index (CPI)) tariff indexation is to be retained; but extensions to existing FiTs installations will no longer be eligible for FiTs.